The use of wooden floorboard material is a preferred flooring material used for flatbed trailer flooring. In particular, the surface texture of wooden floorboards provides a desirable friction surface with which cargo and equipment can adhere to, to generally avoid sliding and shifting during transit. The sliding and shifting of cargo is a common problem when steel or metal material is used for flatbed trailer flooring. Trailer manufacturers and trailer repair shops have, in the past, used imported, tropical hardwood as a standard flooring material for flatbed trailers that are typically attached to “18-wheeler tractors” and other large commercial trucks and tractors used in the commercial trucking industry. The strength, stability and durability of imported, tropical hardwood flooring is generally considered to be superior as compared to that of non-reinforced, domestically grown, wood flooring material, which is plentiful in the US. In particular, tropical hardwood flooring is a preferred flooring material due to it's resistance to damage caused by ultra-violet rays, hot and dry weather, rain, snow, ice and extreme wear and tear. Since flatbed trailer flooring is generally exposed to the outdoor elements, the selection and availability of flatbed trailer flooring material is of great importance.
Over time, however, even the best available tropical hardwood flooring will eventually wear out, but it generally out lasts unmodified, non-reinforced domestically grown wood flooring by a significant amount of time. In the past, the preferred varieties of tropical hardwood, for use with flatbed trailers have been readily found in the rain forests of Brazil and other tropical areas throughout the world. Due to the over harvesting of tropical hardwood trees, the clearing of rain forests worldwide, the general decrease in the number of tropical hardwood trees being replanted, the increased difficulty and expense of locating, harvesting and importing tropical hardwood into the US, an alternative, readily-available, cost-effective flatbed flooring material is needed.
In the past, the use of unmodified, non-reinforced domestic wood flooring such as oak, pine, hickory, etc., has generally not been satisfactory for use in flatbed trailer flooring since the wear expectancy of this type of wood flooring is much shorter as compared to tropical hardwood flooring. In particular, the use of unmodified, non-reinforced domestic wood for flatbed trailer purposes tends to warp, crack, shrink, deteriorate and break loose from the trailer framing, etc., in a relatively short amount of time as compared to tropical hardwood. Considering that the labor cost of installing a wood floor on a flatbed trailer is the same for both tropical hardwood and domestic wood, and that the labor cost is not an insubstantial factor in replacing the trailer flooring, it would be advantageous to use a less expensive, cost-effective, domestically grown, readily available, improved wood flooring material that approaches the quality standards and wear characteristics of tropical hardwood material.
Therefore a need exists to provide a cost-effective, domestically grown, readily available, improved wood flooring system for use with flatbed trailers, eliminating the need for expensive, ever diminishing, tropical hardwood.